


Fire Incarnate

by secretlyasummers



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, inferno was a mistake, maddie deserved better, probably eternally unfinished
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 14:57:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretlyasummers/pseuds/secretlyasummers
Summary: Madelyne Pryor never deserved to die in the Inferno. Here, she doesn't.





	Fire Incarnate

**Author's Note:**

> Madelyne Pryor was terribly, terribly mishandled by the actual comics. I know the behind the scenes stuff, but still. She deserved better. So, after hearing the Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men chapters on Inferno, I decided to write a better ending. Bits and pieces here are from the requisite X-Men and X-Factor issues - full credit to Chris Claremont on that.

An inferno raged through New York City. The mutants of the X-Men and X-Factor dueled, first against each other, and then against endless hordes of demon and goblin. All at the service of their queen, the Goblyn Queen, Madelyn Pryor. The wife of Cyclops, mother of his son, and now revealed as the catspaw of the mysterious Sinister himself. A brood mare, built for a single purpose, without agency, without power, without a real life.

So Madelyn fought. When Sinister had come for her, she had fought. When Cyclops abandoned her, she fought. When the demon Adversary tried to consume the planet, when the Reavers attacked, when everyone and everything had turned against her, she had fought. Madelyn was real, she was alive, and she would not stand by as everything was taken from her.

The demon N’astirh had offered her that power, the chance to never be abandoned again, to never be worthless. There was a cost, a steep one. She had done it anyway. When she awoke from that dream, she was different. With the aid of Havok, and the demons of Limbo, she had taken New York under her aegis, perverted the X-Men into her servants, and prepared to unleash hell upon the world. X-Factor showed up – Cyclops and Jean Grey bravely leading the X-Men old and new against her.

So here they were, locked in combat, Jean Grey and the clone doppleganger of her, telepathically dueling for dominance, shielded by a orb of telepathic power.

“They’re all against me,” the Goblyn Queen howled. “They’ve always been against me! Always want what I have. Scott. The baby. You! Burn with me! All of you!”

Jean’s words were caught by the wind, and more telepathic then sound. “Madelyne, please! It doesn’t have to be like that. I’ve been with you. Inside your mind, as you’ve been inside mine. I know you. I . . . understand.”

“Never!” Her face was a mirrored version of Jean’s, a rictus locked in hatred. “Never! You, the favored daughter of Xavier, the golden messiah that everyone fails to live up to. Stop lying, Grey!”

“I didn’t start what was done to you. But I’m partially responsible. So is Scott. So are we all. Even now, with all that’s passed between us, we can work things out.”

“And what? Live out my days as a replacement you? A throwaway, a facsimile?”

Jean faltered, for a flicker of a second, then ventured on. “Your own person. A mother. A friend. Life – living – it isn’t about how you’re made, how you came to be. It’s about who you are, and what you’ve done. And you’ve done _so much_ , Madelyne. You have _so much_! You have **life!** And what I don’t have . . . may never have. Scott’s son. Don’t throw it all away.”

With a crack, the telekinetic bubble shattered, and the assembled mutants charged forwards. Lightning rumbled, energy gathered.

“Please, Madelyne.”

She gathered energy, her face contorted with rage. Then stopped. She slumped to the ground, and spoke in a near whisper.

“You’re right.”

Jean gestured to the demonic Empire State Building, the spire still growing and sparking with demonic energy.  “You know what we have to do, then.”

Maddie didn’t meet her eyes, and just whispered again. “Yes.”

The two women hovered, and rose, floating higher and higher above the city. Coming close, they nearly embraced each other, Madelyne’s black clothing contrasting with Jean’s red and gold.

“What gave me life,” Maddie said,

“Was what ended mine,” Jean responded.

“The piece I stole.”

“No, borrowed.”

“I return, tattered and soiled.”

A third voice joined.

**Can Fire be soiled, Madelyne Pryor?**

As the X-Men watched, the cosmic force of rebirth encircled the two women, then erupting in flame, blanketing the island of Manhattan in an expression of cosmic rebirth.

“Phoenix. Madelyne. Jean.”

The voices were so close they were indistinguishable.

“Tangled together like stands of night and fire. Where does one end? Where does the other begin? What does it matter? I – we – want to live.”

**Then Live.**

On the other side of the city, as the Darkchilde faltered, N’astirh howled in agony. Demons vanished, the hell-portal in the skies blinking out. The twisted, reshaped buildings and people reverted to what they once were, and heroes – from the Avengers to Daredevil to Excalibur – sighed in relief.

Jean and Maddie fell, hard, collapsing to the ground. Logan and the rest rushed to Jean’s side, offering her words of comfort. Maddie just sat there, alone, for a moment.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay, Madelyne?” Scott’s voice was clear, confident even now.

“Please don’t touch me,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

“I understand.” Scott paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, truly. This is never what I wanted.”

“Please, Scott. I just . . . not right now, please?”

“Sure, Madelyne.” He put a coat down, next to her. Neatly folded, of course. “If you want to cover up,” he said as he walked away, to Jean.

“Wait. Scott.”

Cyclops didn’t turn, but he did stop walking.

“Nathan. Where’s our son?”

Cyclops’ voice was even, clearly avoiding putting any emotion in it, in anything. “With Alex. I don’t think either of us should have him right now.”

Maddie’s voice caught in her throat. She brought her knees to her chest, holding off tears by force of will alone. This wasn’t what she had wanted, this was **never** what she had wanted.

No. That was a lie. This is exactly what she had wanted. This is what she had schemed and fought and clawed her way into accomplishing. Earning her way back didn’t make it better, and it didn’t set things right. They had trusted her, all of them, and she had betrayed them.

Logan watched as the former Goblyn Queen cried alone.

“Slim. What’re we gonna do with the frail? SHIELD or the cops will be here any sec, and with Jeannie’s condition . . .”

Cyclops was unmoving.

“SHIELD can take her, Slim. She’s in their wheelhouse.”

“No.”

“What?”

“We’ll take Madelyne. X-Men care for their own.”

“Scott, that’s a bad idea.”

“I know, Logan. Trust me, I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to drop a comment.


End file.
